Is Light Therapy Racially Biased? The Melanin Problem PBM Won’t Talk About

The Energy Code · May 8, 2026 · 15m

Photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) is marketed like universal biology: shine the right wavelength, hit cytochrome c oxidase, boost ATP, accelerate healing. But this Deep Dive unpacks a hidden variable that can make “standard dosing” either ineffective or unsafe: melanin. Using a 2026 narrative review from researchers at the University of São Paulo, we trace the physics of a photon entering the body, how melanin’s absorption overlaps the therapeutic “optical window,” and why simply “turning up the laser” can backfire — creating heat and reactive species in the epidermis while deeper target…